The year gets off to a colorful start with bowls of amaryllis followed by the bright yellow and fragrant branches of canary broom contrasted with deep blue anemone poppies. The spring months bring tall flowering spikes of forced perennials such as foxglove, larkspur, and lupines, and a brief appearance of the fragrant, purple-boughed wisteria trees. In the summer, the pool is filled with a variety of tropical foliage and flowers. In the fall, the gallery is filled with baskets of cascading and specialty mums.

Take a magical adventure to a winter wonderland of twinkling lights and holiday beauty at the Chicago Botanic Garden when we kick off the holiday season! Outside, 750,000 lights sparkle and welcome you and your family to the Garden's wonderland. Inside the Regenstein Center, a 10,000-square-foot exhibition of miniature trains winds through more than 80 miniature Chicago-area landmarks, including Navy Pier, Soldier Field, Chicago Stadium, the Chinatown Arch, the Art Institute, the South Shore Cultural Center, the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House, and much more!

Model Railroad Garden

Landmarks of America

May 13 – October 29, 201710 a.m. – 5 p.m.

June 7 – August 30, 2017Extended hours on Wednesdays only until 8 p.m.

The 7,500-square-foot Model Railroad Garden: Landmarks of America exhibition features trains running on 1,600 feet of track. The garden-scale trains are 1/29th the size of life-size trains. Train and garden enthusiasts, young and old, return year after year for the delightful sights and sounds of the miniature trains traversing high and low through tunnels, across bridges, and around buildings.

The Butterflies & Blooms exhibition is a butterfly exhibition where visitors can immerse themselves in a habitat filled with hundreds of live butterflies. This exhibition is filled with species native to South America, Asia, North America, and Africa, as well as those native to Illinois. The 2,800-square-foot white mesh enclosure is located on the Annex Road, as you head out from the Visitor Center to McDonald Woods.